


Spider-Like

by possiblyobsessed



Series: IronDad and SpiderSon + the Avengers + Ignoring Infinity War [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Parent Tony Stark, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-07-25 13:10:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16198202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/possiblyobsessed/pseuds/possiblyobsessed
Summary: Tony Stark and Peter Parker discover/talk about the less convenient and lesser known effects of the spider bite. Because getting bitten by a radioactive spider can't have all good effects.





	1. Chapter 1

Thermoregulation:

The first time Tony Stark, yes the Tony Stark – superhero, billionaire, inventor, engineer, genius – invited Peter Parker – unknown vigilante, loser, teenager, chatterbox, genius – to his home to work in the labs Peter thought he was dreaming. Peter had almost thought that he had completely dreamed up the invite and he was not going to go to the labs but rather straight home, to May.

But of course he couldn’t dream up a very unhappy Happy waiting for him outside the school. He really had been invited to the compound. The Avengers Compound. By Tony Stark. Unbeknownst to both the driver and the teenager this wouldn’t be the last time they made this drive. In fact, it would be the first of many.

It was now the third time Peter had been invited to the compound. He would like to say he was taking it well and getting used to the fact that Tony Stark actually wanted to work with him in the labs. Of course if he said this he would be lying. He couldn’t help it though, there was just something so endlessly amazing about getting to hang out with his hero, working on the Spider suit and talking about improvements and other inventions. He just couldn’t figure out why Tony Stark wanted to hang out with him. He was sure he would never figure it out. In fact he was sure eventually the invites would stop. Tony probably felt bad about the Vulture incident. They hadn’t talked about that since Peter told him it wasn’t his fault. Peter had felt very brave to disagree with the man.

The only thing that Peter didn’t enjoy about visiting the labs was that they were seriously cold. Mr. Stark’s personal labs, which is where Peter worked, were underground and that meant there was no windows or sunlight. He was also fairly sure the air conditioning was always on and always cooling the room.

Because he had only visited the compound on school days so far he had always left pretty early to be home at a decent time. But today was a Friday and that meant that he didn’t have to leave as early because he didn’t need to worry about waking up early the next day.

So Peter was in the labs far later than he had ever been. He was certain that it was dark outside. Or as certain as he could be without a window. And it turned out that the temperature in the labs only continued to drop as it got late. He didn’t want to say anything though because Mr. Stark looked perfectly comfortable and at ease. It wasn’t that important anyway, Peter could deal with the cold.

Tony looked up and saw Peter shivering as he attempted to attach two wires on a circuit board. He frowned, it wasn’t that cold. Peter was also in a sweater, which meant something was definitely wrong or Peter got cold really easy.

“Are you cold, kid?” Mr. Stark asked, as he placed his tools down and looked over at Peter.

Peter returned his gaze and smiled, “I’m fine Mr. Stark.”

“No, you’re shivering.”

Peter sighed and looked down at his hands, “I just get cold easily. I haven’t always but after the whole spider bite thing I’ve had a lot of trouble getting warm.”

Tony looked at him curiously, as if he was trying to figure something out. He couldn’t say that he’d ever done any particular study into spiders, but he knew a few trivial facts. “You think it’s because of the spider? You know spiders are ectothermic, they can’t thermoregulate.”

“I know,” Peter said, “But I’m still human. Definitely still warm-blooded, but I do think the whole spiders being cold-blooded thing affected me. I think it has just made it harder to keep warm. But not impossible.”

Tony nodded, had Peter known him better Peter would have been able to pick that this was the exact moment Tony decided to do more research into spiders, “That makes sense.”

Needless to say, when Peter visited the labs for a fourth time they were a lot warmer. He suspected the air conditioners were now circulating warm air rather than cool air. He also left with a pile of specially made blankets and jumpers. He didn’t stop thanking Mr. Stark for a long time. A very long time.

 

Metabolism:

Peter didn’t want to let himself get hopeful, but meeting Pepper Potts certainly felt like a sign that Mr. Stark didn’t plan on getting rid of him. It also felt a bit like a test, because if he didn’t impress Ms. Potts then he probably didn’t have much chance spending time with Mr. Stark, or getting a real internship at Stark Industries.

Unsurprisingly, Peter had stammered through most of the first three hours he was in Pepper’s presence. And he’d managed to call her Ms Potts Ma’am. Three times. It wasn’t his fault the woman was amazing. And very intimidating, he never imagined he’d see Tony Stark following someone’s instructions. But Pepper managed to get him doing exactly what was needed. He just couldn’t get over how incredible she was. Mr. Stark had pretended to be jealous that Peter was more impressed by Pepper than him.

The whole afternoon had been surprisingly fun, and it wasn’t terribly hard all things considered. Peter always had good manners. Apparently he had a very likeable personality, though he wasn’t sure about that. Also, May said he was adorable. He thought he had done fairly well in getting Pepper to like him.

However, a problem had arisen now that they were eating dinner. Peter had already eaten a decent sized serving of the pasta Pepper had made, as well as a salad, but he was still starving. He didn’t have a chance to eat much that day and he hated asking May to buy more food. He would have asked for a second serving but he didn’t want to seem greedy. Not when Pepper was probably hoping to have leftovers for the next few days.

When Pepper noticed that Peter was scraping his bowl clean she frowned. He must still be hungry, though she didn’t know why he wouldn’t ask for more. She suspected it had something to do with the fact that he was so nervous around her. But she couldn’t be certain because he also seemed nervous around Tony, who he’d known for some time. It was kind of endearing.

“Peter, would you like some more pasta?” She asked gently.

Peter went red in the face and pointlessly spun his fork around. “If that’s alright with you, Ms. Potts.”

Pepper heaped more food into his bowl. This serving was larger than his first had been, which caused him to look up at Ms. Potts in surprise.

She grinned, “There’s plenty leftover. Besides, you look hungry, growing boy and all, I suppose?”

Peter nodded. “I’ve also got a really fast metabolism,” he added, though he cringed as soon as he said it.

Pepper and Tony looked at him curiously, “How so?” She asked.

Peter went even redder, “Well, it uh… it happened with the spider bite. I mean I got extra strength and super healing and all, but it also made my metabolism increase to support the change, so I guess I’m just hungry pretty often. It’s a little inconvenient.”

“I guess you should have thirds then.”

 

Lavender:

When Tony returned to the compound late on a Thursday afternoon he was expecting to spend the rest of the night by himself. He would probably work in the lab and mess around with some new designs for the suit. He wasn’t expecting to find Peter curled up on the couch in his lounge room, fast asleep and wrapped in blankets.

Of course, things rarely went the way he expected them to.

As soon as he’d walked into the private area of the compound, his area, Friday had alerted him that Peter had arrived two hours ago and was in the lounge room watching Star Trek. Tony had practically run to the lounge room, worried that something was very wrong. While he had made it clear to Peter that he was more than welcome to come to the compound and make himself at home whenever he felt like it, Peter was timid about doing so and always asked Tony for permission anyway. Today he had not, which is what worried Tony.

Upon his entry to the lounge room it was clear that nothing was wrong and Peter had made himself comfortable. Tony smiled, while he was confused he was glad Peter was finally listening to him. Next step: convince the kid he didn’t need to be called ‘Mr. Stark’.

He turned to leave when suddenly something loud went off on the television and Peter jolted awake. Tony observed Peter sloppily throw his hands into a fighting stance, which was kind of upsetting. Peter blinked and then turned to look at Tony.

“Hey Mr. Stark!”

“Hey Pete. You planning to go back to sleep?” Tony inquired.

“Uh, no. But then I didn’t mean to that time either so…” Peter shrugged and looked at Tony with bleary eyes.

“We’re going to need food then,” Tony gestured for Peter to get up and follow him.

Peter threw the blankets off himself and paused the show. He was beside Tony in four large, excited steps. The pair slowly made their way to the kitchen. As they walked Peter entertained Tony with a story of how he and Ned had found Spider-Man merchandise in the superhero section of a department store. And, best of all, there had been a Lego set which he and Ned were now officially saving up for. Tony would have offered to pay for it but he felt that Ned and Peter were just as excited about saving up for it as they were about getting it. However, he did make a mental note to buy the kid some Spider-Man merchandise.

When they reached the kitchen Tony immediately set to work finding popcorn while Peter stood idly in the door, unaware of how to help.

“Pete, can you get the butter for me?”

Peter nodded and headed towards the fridge. Tony held his hand out behind him and set up the microwave for the popcorn. He waited patiently to feel the butter in his hand, but it wasn’t. He didn’t have to turn around to know Peter was hovering, but he did anyway.

“What’s the matter, you going to hand me the butter?”

He watched Peter frown, his brows creased in confusion, “You don’t like to be passed things.”

That stumped him for a moment. He didn’t like to be handed things. Yet, as he considered it he found that he wasn’t averse to the idea of Peter handing him the butter. Or anything for that matter.

“Well,” Tony watched Peter carefully, not lowering his hand, “You are now officially allowed to pass me things.”

Peter grinned. And handed him the butter. While they both watched the popcorn in the microwave it occurred to Tony he didn’t actually know why Peter was at the compound.

“So, not that it is any problem, but can I ask why you’re here.”

“Well someone at her work gave May a bouquet and there was so many flowers! But the whole entire apartment smelled like lavender, and I just really couldn’t deal with it. I asked Happy to pick me up after school and that’s basically how I ended up here,” Peter explained sheepishly, turning his attention from the popcorn to Tony.

The man’s research of months ago returned to him and he nodded, “I read that spiders hate lavender. I couldn’t find any scientific proof, but that could be the reason. Or maybe it just got to strong with your heightened senses. Either way, I’d say it has something to do with the spider bite.”

 

Peppermint:

Over the last day and a half Peter had come to the conclusion that Shuri was completely and utterly amazing. He was extremely glad that Mr. Stark had invited him over for the weekend to meet both Shuri and T’Challa. He really liked T’Challa too, but he mostly only saw the Wakandan king during meals, since he and Tony were always busy working on the Accords.

The best part of the weekend, so far, was when they had tricked Tony and T’Challa into drinking coffee that had soapy water in it. Both men had been disgusted and they’d chased after the children until Shuri and Peter had been forced to hideout into one of the Intern Labs in the public section of the compound. They had received some odd looks.

Shuri had suggested that they also give Pepper the horrible coffee but Peter had quickly shut her down.

Now the teens lazed around in the kitchen, Shuri was constructing a bridge from the bench to the dining table made entirely of spaghetti, chocolate and one biscuit that had been split into two. Peter was watching, advising her of where the weak points were and snatching up pieces of chocolate to eat when he thought she wasn’t looking.

Twenty-eight minutes in and Shuri was three quarters of the way there, the bridge had only collapsed once, close to the start of the process and Peter had been told off for eating Shuri’s valuable resources four times. So all was going well.

Shuri had begun to tell Peter not to eat the chocolate once more when Tony and T’Challa walked in. Peter made a mental note to ask Friday for a photo of the moment, because the expressions on both their faces were priceless. Peter already had some ideas about making them into reaction images. Meanwhile, Shuri had started to laugh too hard to actually finish lecturing Peter.

When the situation had been cleared up the two men had decided to stay and watch the completion of the bridge building. They settled down on two chairs on the opposite side of the table, expecting Shuri to continue her construction, but she turned back to Peter instead.

“How about this Baby Stark, I give you this gum and you stop eating my chocolate stores?” Shuri was already holding a piece of gum out to Peter, who nodded and took it. He immediately began to unwrap it.

“I wouldn’t eat that-” Tony started, but Peter was already chewing on it. For a minute it looked like he was going to throw up, but then he grabbed a tissue off the bench and spat the gum out.

“What the hell was that,” he demanded, but Shuri and T’Challa stared at him in surprise, unable to answer.

“Spiders hate peppermint,” Tony finished. He sent Peter a significant look and shook his head, “This is why you should listen to me.”

Peter looked at him rather sheepishly, but it was Shuri who spoke next, “What do spiders have to do with anything?”

“Hasn’t Peter told you he’s Spider-Man?”

Shuri whirled around, “You’re Spider-Man!?”

 

Lighter:

With Pepper away at conferences all weekend and Rhodey visiting family, there was no way Tony was going to stay at the compound. Sure, he was on better terms with the ex-rogues, but that didn’t mean he was on good terms with them. However he and Peter were on better terms than ever. After the whole father-figure, you’re like my child, confession thing Tony had been desperate to spend more time with Peter. Of course, he still didn’t want Peter to meet the other Avengers so that limited the time they had together. But then, the situation was more he didn’t want the other Avengers to meet Peter. He was a bit selfish like that, but the kid was his, he didn’t like them, he was scared Peter would find someone he liked more, he didn’t want to listen to Steve shame him for bringing a child to Leipzig.

Really, it was better that this opportunity had presented itself. Better that Tony was spending the weekend at Peter’s apartment with Peter and May. He was actually staying in the spare bunk in Peter’s room, which was a little weird and had also led to a mini meltdown when Peter had climbed in at three o’clock the previous morning with a large cut across his chest. Okay, so it was more of a major freak out, but Tony was not about to admit that.

The cut had been fine by the morning but Tony had informed May anyway and they had both worried over him for two and a half hours. Peter had despised all of it but Tony found it kind of adorable.

Now he and Peter were sat on the couch watching Stranger Things. Or rather, they attempted to watch Stranger Things but Tony had to keep asking Peter what was going on and Peter absolutely refused to spoil anything.

They were halfway through an episode when Tony reached into the bowl that had previously held M&Ms and realised there was none left. He picked up the bowl and brought it closer to him so he could inspect it. It was definitely empty. He turned to look at Peter, who was paying intense attention to the television.

“Did you finish the M&Ms?”

“Uh… Maybe?” Peter replied, not taking attention away from the show.

Peter was rudely distracted from his viewing when a pillow hit him in the head. This, he reminded himself, is why he couldn’t always ignore his Spidey sense. He turned to see Tony with a pillow still in his hand, “What the hell Dad!”

Tony faltered, he almost put the pillow down just because he was so happy to be called Dad. Then he had to remind himself that Peter deserved this for the crimes he had committed. So, with that in mind, he raised the pillow and hit Peter with it again.

Of course, Peter had to retaliate, which only meant one thing. A huge pillow fight. One that was watched by a very amused May Parker, who somewhere in the process found herself refereeing.

When Tony turned away Peter stepped up onto the couch. It was time to put his winning move into play, he would jump on Tony’s back and then he would be able to hit him with the pillow very easily.

Peter’s plan did not turn out how he expected it to. He did manage step one, he landed easily on Tony’s back and clung on. Unfortunately, somewhere in the process of jumping he managed to drop the pillow, which made it look as though he was just pathetically clinging onto the man.

“I consider this a sign that I won,” Tony dropped his pillow on the ground and turned his neck awkwardly to try to look at the teenager on his back, “Kid, it literally feels like I’m wearing a backpack. Do you even eat?”

“Yes, he eats a lot,” May said.

Peter dropped off Tony’s back and sat on the couch. He kicked up his legs so that there was no space left on it for Tony, “I’m just light.”

“Yeah, but you weren’t always,” May bent down and picked up a pillow from the floor, she chucked it at Peter and turned to Tony, “It happened with the spider bite. One day I couldn’t pick him up, then all of a sudden he weighs as much as a feather again.”

“Ned thinks that the bite made my bone density lighter so it was easier for me to swing around and be stealthy and flexible. It’s not really helpful when I want to jump on bad guys’ backs and weigh them down. But I shouldn’t complain, because spiders don’t even have bones. I mean, at least I have bones not an exoskeleton,” Peter explained.

Tony hummed, “I can’t believe it took me this long to notice.”

Peter shrugged. May stood up and headed towards the kitchen, “I’m going to make us some lunch. You two clean up this room. And boys, I was the one who finished the chocolates.”


	2. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes there's negative affects to the contraptions Peter made along with the spider bite...

Webs:

The last few weeks Tony had slept better than he could ever remember doing so. It was a fact that surprised many, well he believed it was only him that knew, but Pepper, Rhodey and Friday all knew. They were all glad. It surprised them because his house was full of people he didn’t trust. He’d expected that when the ex-Rogues ex-Avengers (not so ex-Avengers anymore) arrived at the compound again he would be plagued by nightmares of a vibranium shield crushing his chest.

It was impossible to express how relieved he was that this wasn’t the case. He couldn’t tell you why he wasn’t having nightmares, but he could tell you normally he would have been awake at three in the morning. But he hadn’t been, not with his new and improved sleep schedule, at least not until the call. The call that had single-handedly stressed him out more than any other call ever had.

Maybe it’s because his brain was so sleep muddled.

Or maybe it’s because his son was a little shit.

\---

When Radioactive pulled him from his sleep he sent out a silent thanks that Pepper was at a conference and not in the room to be woken up at an ungodly hour. Then he panicked, because oh god, that was Peter waking him up at an ungodly hour. He sat bolt upright and reached for his phone. He found it in a matter of seconds and answered with inhuman speed.

“Pete?”

“Hey, I need help.”

“Where are you?” It’s possible that if he had been more awake he may have noticed that Peter didn’t actually sound panicked at all. But right now he was busied by the thought Peter was in serious trouble.

“Um… an alleyway. I don’t know which one, it’s kind of dark. You can find me right? Because it’s really important. Like I need a lot of help, and, uh, preferably before sunrise. Because I don’t really want anyone else to find me.”

“That bad?” Tony had already stumbled out of bed, his suit was three quarters of the way assembled around his body and he was stepping out onto the balcony, which he had just opened up.

“Oh, it’s so bad. I mean, if someone saw me I’d probably die.”

“Okay, I’ve got to hang up, but I’m on my way. Don’t worry.” He had already begun his flight, he followed the directions Friday had found for him and flew the suit as fast as he could.  
If he didn’t Peter was going to die. He couldn’t let Peter die. He couldn’t, he couldn’t, he couldn’t.

The location Peter had called him from was just outside of Queens. If he managed to get his kid out of there unscathed he had half a mind to lecture him for being out so late (or early?) on a school night and patrolling outside his designated area. He might even tell May, and then they could both give him a mouthful. Or maybe he would install an automatic curfew on Peter’s suit, he could shut Karen down after a certain time, or set her an automatic course home after a certain time, one that Peter couldn’t override. One that Ned couldn’t override. It was perfect, he’d call it the Bedtime Protocol.

But first he had to save Peter.

Sixteen minutes later Tony turned into the alleyway that Friday had led him to and almost flew straight into Peter. Peter who was suspended in mid-air, with only his head poking out of a mess of his own webbing which he appeared to be covered in. Not just covered in though – because that wasn’t quite Peter-y enough – he was stuck in it.

“Hi,” he said weakly.

Tony didn’t know whether to laugh or get angry. He was definitely not happy at freaking out about this. But this was definitely worth getting up early just to see. He began to laugh. He couldn’t stop himself, there was something so pathetic and hilarious about the sight of Peter trapped in his own contraption. It reminded him of his first few tests in Mark II. But he was also definitely angry, Peter had said he was going to die. This did not look like dying. He was so angry, he might cry. He might laugh until he cried. He didn’t know if there was any correct reaction to this situation, but that was definitely a good one.

Then, while Peter hung there asking for help Tony took the time to, very loudly, ask Friday to take multiple photos. Even though she would take them anyway. He had the time to do this, because Peter wasn’t dying. But Tony was going to murder him.

\---

It had taken almost an hour for Tony to get Peter untangled and unstuck. Peter had helped as soon as his arms had become free. It had been almost sunrise by the time they arrived at Peter’s apartment. Tony had spent some time telling Peter he was out too late, in the wrong part of the city and not dying. Peter maintained that if someone had seen him he would have died of embarrassment, which was why Tony needed to arrive before people headed out to begin their day.

When they had parted ways Peter hugged Tony and said, “Thanks Dad.” And like every other time he’d said it, Tony melted a little. He even considered deleting the photos for him. But Tony had stumbled around wildly at three in the morning, Peter deserved a little embarrassment.

So now, Tony, Rhodey and Happy sat together and looked at pictures of Spider-Man stuck in a spider web he had created. Tony retold the story Peter had told him; that the webs had been set up as a trap for a group of burglars, but Peter had caught them without the trap, so he’d been swinging home and had forgotten about the trap and he swung straight into it. And how did he not see the massive web in front of him? Well that was the best part, Peter had been too busy watching a cat that had been running in circles around the alleyway. Once he was in the web he had tried to free himself, but only succeeded in making more of the mess. It was Parker Luck, Peter had said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally supposed to be a one shot, but a couple of comments on chapter one got this idea stuck in my head. So this is just a little extra addition to the story because I wanted to write a little more IronDad and SpiderSon before the next fic, which Peter isn't in much.  
> Thanks for supporting this fic and the next one in the series is called 'So I've Heard' and I'll try to get it up within the next two days.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoy this fic as much as the first one in this series. I'm not as happy with fic as the first one, but I thought I'd post it anyway.  
> It's probably obvious, but this fic starts before the first story in the series and ends after it.  
> Anyway, thank you all so much to everyone who has supported the previous work. I appreciate it so much.  
> Also, the idea for the final part of this one-shot is based on this tumblr post: https://smallangryspider.tumblr.com/post/177173730270/hc-that-the-spider-bite-made-peter-even-lighter  
> Also, again, Chris Evans twitter post? I'm? in? tears?


End file.
